Research Of Polymer/Silicon Optical Switch Devices

With the rapid development of information technology, optical fibercommunication is the main transmission mode in the communication fields, becauseit has advantages, such as big capacity of transmission and wide band, etc. With thedevelopment of optical network, the optical switches play an important role in theaspect of the vital functions including optical domain optimizing, routing, protection,etc. With the continuous growth of exchange capacity, the size of the optical switchmatrix is also gradually improved. In the future, the optical switch with high speed,low power and low loss will play important role.In this thesis, the research work about the design and fabrication of theelectro-optical (EO) switch and thermo-optical (TO) switch by using DR19/SU-8,DR1/PC and NOA73materials has been demonstrated, which mainly in order tosolve the high speed, low cost, low power consumption and long-term stability of theoptical switches. The main contents of this paper are listed below.1. Based on the optical waveguide theory, by using the effective index method,the mode characteristics of the three layer planar waveguide, rectangle waveguideand ridge waveguide were analyzed. At the same time, the working principle of MZIwaveguide optical switch was analyzed. Finally, the EO effect and TO effect of thematerials were introduced.2. In the experiment, the guest-host EO material DR19/SU-8was synthesized,the absorption properties, order parameters Φ and EO coefficient γ33were measured.The order parameters Φ was0.61, the EO coefficient γ33was11pm/V. Thecharacteristic parameters of the waveguide were calculated by using the opticalwaveguide theory. Finally, the EO switch device was fabricated. The rise time andfall time of the switch were36.5ns and33.1ns, respectively.3. In the experiment，the PC and NOA73materials were selected as the hostmaterial of the EO material and cladding material, respectively. By optimizing the concentration of DR1, the biggest EO coefficient γ33was obtained. The EOcoefficient γ33was12.8pm/V. Combining optical waveguide theory andsemiconductor technology, the EO switch device was fabricated. The rise time andfall time of the switch were33.6ns and27.4ns, respectively. The switch voltage was23V and the biggest extinction ratio is12dB. The EO switch fabricated withDR1/PC showed stability for at least3600hour at room temperature.4. In the experiment，the MZI TO switch with low power consumption wasfabricated by using NOA73material. The NOA73material has high thermo-opticalcoefficient and good optical properties, etc. The PMMA and Si materials wereselected as the cladding material and substrate, respectively. The characteristicparameters of the waveguide were calculated by using the optical waveguide theoryand the waveguide TO effect was simulated by using Rsoft thermal analysis softwaremodules. Finally, the TO switch device was fabricated and the performance of thedevice was measured. The extinction ratio was29.3dB and the driving power was1.96mW. The rise time and fall time of the switch were754.4μs and722.8μs,respectively.